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Greek Pita Bread

Simple and quick with just a 30 min rise, you’ll love making your own pita bread! Once you do, store-bought will never taste the same 🙂

This recipe makes 8 pitas about 6-8″ in diameter so a good size. They can easily be rolled out smaller or larger to fit your purposes. Just make sure your pan fits your pita!

Remember, in case you’re not familiar with Greek pita bread, these do not open into a pocket like Middle Eastern or Syrian bread. These pita are meant to be wrapped around a filling or, and probably my favorite way, cut into triangles and used as scoops for all sorts of spreads and sauces. Granted, though not traditional, I have a friend who slaters hers in jam so feel free to enjoy them as you like 🙂

BONUS: because this is a flatbread, it requires little kneading and only a 30 minute rising time.

Also important, this is a recipe that needs you to use your hands. Get right in there to mix everything together – a great recipe for little hands to learn in the kitchen too!

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1 scant tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups room temperature water

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

Combine water, yeast and sugar in small bowl or cup. Set aside to proof for approx 15 minutes or until foamy.

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.

When yeast has proofed, add to dry ingredients and mix just to just slightly combine.

Add olive oil and mix until all ingredients are completely combined and a somewhat raggedy ball of dough forms.

Turn ball out onto a floured surface and knead for approx five minutes. You’ll feel the dough becoming more elastic and smooth as you work it.

Return kneaded dough to a large bowl, cover with dishcloth and allow to rise for 30 minutes.

Turn out onto floured surface, punch down the risen dough just slightly and cut into 8 equal pieces. A dough scraper works beautifully for this! Roll each piece into a small ball and set aside.

With a floured rolling pin, roll out each of the balls of dough to desired size – ideally between 6 and 8′ in diameter.

Heat a cast iron skillet, brush lightly with olive oil and cook pita one at a time for about 2 minutes per side. The bread should be just slightly browned – they will puff up a bit, that’s normal. Enjoy warm or cool and store, wrapped well.

Maria, other than suggesting Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour, I’m not sure how much I can help here….. GF is not my area of expertise but I’d love to know – and share – your experience if you do try it!

absolutely fine to sub in a harder wheat/whole grain! because it’s a flatbread, we’re not looking for an enormous rise which is sometimes a consideration with whole grains. I’ve used King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat flour often in this recipe with fantastic results and – bc I was out of everything else – I’ve even used eikorn flour successfully! that did take a bit more water to get dough to right consistency but in general, and thankfully, flatbreads are pretty forgiving 🙂

I like to use whole grain flours whenever possible. Could I substitute whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or white whole wheat in this recipe? Or perhaps for half the flour? Thank You. I just found your blog this morning and though I’m not a vegan or even a vegetarian, I want to eat a more plant based diet. Your recipes look absolutely delightful. Can’t wait to try many of them.

I just made this for dinner and it was the perfect compliment to my Indian curry with rice dish. It’s chewy, soft and delicious. I used all purpose flour and only used 1 tsp olive oil. I also did not oil the pan because that’s how my grandma makes hers. Also I kept them wrapped in a kitchen towel while cooking the other ones and that made them soft and kept them warm longer. Thank you so much for the recipe!